Honor Level Struggles

I'm personally stuck at Dishonorable, as is a number of my friends, still at step one as I've been for quite some time. Long story short, saying "jk" doesn't cut it after a returned joke, which is actually amazing considering some of the things I've been threatened with and called in-game. Nothing new, just another suspension system horror story.
I'm not saying honor levels should be easy, but I think they should at least be understandable and straightforward, rather than a shot in the dark about whether or not what you're doing is effective, I think that's a little disrespectful to the players. I like to know that I'm making progress, so this honor system just feels like shoveling through brick walls for me and my friends. I can never find any guides, so I'd like to hear it from everyone else.
Anyone else have any experiences they want to share, or ideas on what is the most effective way to make progress? I might be missing something but I've done a few things for some time to see what works. Neither being silent nor whipping neck like a starved animal seems to be effective. No amount of honors seems to cut it either, and those aren't uncommon for me at all. I don't feel like end-game honors give you anything at all to be entirely honest. I don't think I'm going anywhere. Was wondering if maybe playing aram or normals or ranked has any difference. Maybe even bot games?
**TL;DR Help eachother figure out the honor system, whats most effective?**
Ya'll're great, stay cool.
{{sticker:sg-soraka}}

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